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354 stories matching music
- Five Thousand Seattleites Turned a Chamber-Music Festival Into a Social Event
O. E. Pettis’s three-night midsummer festival drew crowds, six concerts and hours of after-concert conversation—proof that music had become a civic occasion.
- The First Teachers’ Institute: A Battle for Seattle’s Soul
In September 1872, the Territory’s top educators gathered in Seattle to debate everything from corporal punishment to the role of women in teaching, laying the groundwork for public education in Washington.
- Seattle's Irish Community Crowns Robert Emmet—and Calls for Home Rule
In 1895, the Irish-American Club packed Ranke's Hall to honor the martyred patriot with speeches, songs, and a ringing demand for an Irish parliament.
- The Great Unknown: Snohomish’s Centennial Celebration and the Rise of a Logging Empire
On July 4, 1893, the community gathered at the River Side Hotel for music, oratory, and history, marking a decade of growth in a county defined by its forests.
- Seattle’s Music Halls Went Silent Overnight
After the city council banned music halls and refunded their licenses, Seattle’s basement theaters shut down without a fight — at least for one night.
- The Olympia Pianist Who Claimed Franz Liszt Taught Him Through a Window
A local musician known as the sage of Sherman Valley told a Tribune reporter that as a boy in Westphalia he stole piano lessons from the great Franz Liszt—until Liszt pulled him through the window and set him on his knee.
- Music, Sunshine, and Pretty Girls at the Seattle Theater
The Carleton Opera Company concludes its popular engagement with a final performance of 'Dorothy,' leaving audiences enchanted.
- Seattle’s Fourth of July: A City Adorned in Light and Iron
As the nation celebrates its birthday, Seattle’s business leaders have transformed downtown into a spectacle of gas jets, electric lamps, and iron arches, proving that the young city is ready for its moment on the national stage.
- Scarlet Fever Shut Seattle's Schools—Then the Board Cut Teachers' Pay
In May 1895 a health order ended the school year early. The same meeting slashed salaries, eliminated music and drawing, and triggered a board member's furious dissent.
- A Night of Music in a Jungle Opera House
Seattle's social elite transformed the opera house into a tropical paradise for a high-society concert event.
- The Unlikely Fortune of 'After the Ball'
A Milwaukee music publisher recounts how a banjo player with no formal training turned a popular song into a small fortune.
- Seattle's Fire Chief Accused as the Council Wrestles a Telephone Franchise and a Paving Bill
Both houses of the city council meet late into the night: charges that Chief Hunt holds office under false pretenses, a twenty-five-year franchise for the Seattle Home Telephone Company, and a fight over who pays for the sick and injured.
- A Saloon Fight, a Fine, and a Wage Suit in Old Town
A former musical director at Conquest Saloon sues Jack Furness for back pay, but Furness says he deducted the amount of a fine he paid after the musician's altercation with a customer.
- The Grange Hall Radio Dance
A dozen families in White Bluffs successfully tune in old-time music for an evening of square dances and waltzes, marking a technological milestone for the remote valley.
- The Search for a Neutral Conductor
Seattle musicians organize a new choral society to perform oratorios, while struggling to escape the shadow of 'jealousy' among local teachers.
- The Color Line at the Oberon: Seattle’s First Civil Rights Test
When a prominent Black minister is ejected from a local music hall for his race, he threatens legal action under state law, sparking a public debate on discrimination in early 20th-century Seattle.
- The Tragedy at the Marion Street Rooming House
A discarded lover murders a popular music teacher in her home before turning his gun on himself, leaving her two children orphaned.
- The Elopement That Seattle Couldn't Stop Watching
A music teacher and his married pupil vanish East, a husband follows, and a father-in-law claims the whole thing was a plot to win a divorce—while the young wife says she still believes her husband.
- The Fair Band Struck Over a Late Paycheck — and Management Wired San Francisco for Replacements
When the musicians' weekly wages arrived a day late, several players refused to perform; the trustees called it ingratitude, and a thirty-piece band from San Francisco was on the next train.
- The Boy Who Stole a Horse to Earn His Keep
A 17-year-old’s desperate attempt to fund his future ends in jail, sparking a local debate on juvenile justice and the harsh realities of poverty in early Seattle.
- The Battle for Seattle’s Soul: Saloon Owners vs. The City Over 'Music with Booze'
In a landmark legal clash in 1901, three prominent saloon proprietors sued the city to block a $1,000 tax on their establishments, arguing that entertainment and alcohol should remain legally intertwined.
- A Polish Rancher in Muddy Boots Sits Down at the Piano and Steals the Show
Two hundred people in fancy dress fill the Olympia Theater to raise $83.75 for a Sherman Valley schoolhouse — with the lieutenant governor on fiddle, the mayor managing, and the sage of the valley in blue overalls at the keyboard.
- The Last Rally: How Seattle’s Republicans Tried to Buy the Vote with Prima Donnas and Quartets
As election day approaches, the Republican party stages its final grand spectacle at the Armory, promising musical entertainment for ladies and a landslide victory for Frank D. Black over the 'mongrel' Populist ticket.
- The Eight-Year-Old Drummer Who Captivated the Band
A young Seattle boy, dressed in a fancy frock, stunned a visiting military band with his natural rhythm and command of the drums.
- Seattle’s First 'Messiah' Performance
A chorus of 175 voices packed Plymouth Church in a landmark cultural event that hinted at the city's future as a musical center.
Also about this, in other words
- A Call to Harmony at the Territorial University
A visiting lecturer proposes a city-wide fundraiser to gift a Steinway grand piano to the University of Washington, arguing that music education is a moral imperative for a frontier territory.
- A Musical Interruption in Hover
An account of a brief performance by two Black entertainers at a local schoolhouse, filtered through the era's jarring racial language.
- Music, Supper, and St. Patrick's Cheer
Liberty Hall hosts a packed house as the local band performs to appreciative neighbors.
- The Piano That Bound a Community Together
How the ladies of Snohomish organized to bring culture and music to their town.
- The Piano Player and the Martial Law Mob
When the U.S. Army imposed martial law in 1886 Seattle to restore order amid anti-Chinese riots, one piano player decided to publicly heckle the 'murderers' in uniform.
- The Midnight Musician of Second and James
A classic Seattle neighborhood dispute over a disruptive neighbor and his relentless cornet playing.
- A Musical Triumph for Marguerite McKinney
A packed house at the Seattle Theater celebrates the young singer before her departure for Chicago.
- The Great Inter-City Musical Bridge
Seattle and Tacoma celebrate social ties with a grand concert and gala featuring the University Glee Club.